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GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT. 
Born April 27, 1822. Died July 23, 1885. 




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OCT 2- 

COPYRIGHTED 1897. 
The Uptown Visitor Publishing Co., 247 W. 125th St.,|VewS>rk City. 




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The Officers and Men 

of the 

Grand Ar'rrty of the Republic 

This Tribute to their Chieftain 

Is respectfully dedicated. 



New York, April 15, 1897. 



EDWARD DOYLE 



LAYING THE HEKO TO KEST. 

T 

o 

From out our land the light of joy has gone, 

AncJ dark is every dwelling as a grave. 

No more shall we see him whom Freedom placed 

A fondest mother's trust in, in the strength 

Of whose integrity she felt the earth 

Grow firm and firmer to her heavenly feet, 

As to the feet of Spring. Upon the height, 

The Mausoleum looms to hold his form 

Within its midnight hush forevermore 

Yet, ah ! do we not hear the clear, full voice 

Of his career of duty to his God 

And country, and, in his achievements, see 

His spirit's most sublime embodiment? 

Do we not know the Hero is the soul 

Angelic in maintaining right supreme; 

That, hence no tomb nor all the flowering earth 

Can shut him from our view; that only Heaven 



8 LAYING THE HERO TO REST. 

With broadening azure can pavilion him? 
With these reflections let our souls grow calm 
As the Pacific, that from eve accepts 
The mantle of her peace, when she ascends 
To Heaven with all the good which men achiev 



II 



Above the city's blackness pierced by spires, 
In fancy rise; and glancing toward the bay 
Behold the fleet collecting like wild birds 
That spread their wings for migratory flight. 
Then watch the tangled chain of soldiery, 
Thrown in huge heaps on every street and square 
Uncoil beneath the Marshal's master hand, 
And lengthen out without a broken link. 
There, where the throng is thickest and most stilt 
Departs the Hero in a winding sheet 
Of mournful melody toward Claremont, where 



LAYING THE HERO TO REST. 

Old Hudson makes the grandest of its sweeps 

And most sublime expansion, passing there 

Into a realm heroic, where it spreads 

Broad as a lake, and mirrors in its depths 

The heights where Freedom dashed Oppression down, 



III. 



Up from the broad, bright bay the warships sail, 

Upon the blue midstream toward Riverside, 

Where thousands watch for them with wearying eyes. 

Slowly they move; the shadow of the earth 

Upon the moon eclipsing her, creeps not 

More slowly than the mournful armament, 

Nor casts a deeper darkness over men. 

Larger the vessels grow, and restlessness 

Stirs breeze-like thro' the throng along the slope, 

And on the hillocks. From the sunny bay, 

To the long shadows of the Palisarlpe, 



10 LAYING THE HERO TO REST. 

Extend the monitors and sloops of war. 

Arrayed in battle line, they flash and boom. • 

How the earth quakes ! how from the coldest depths 

The tidal surge of terror splashes white 

Across the faces of the multitude, 

As tho' they saw the millions slain arise 

And fall back ghastly into swallowing earth ! 

While from the air and from the river rolls 

A double dolorous moan among the hills 

And valleys of the peopled Palisades, 

And down along the black metropolis 

Where the battalions, looking up, catch glimpses 

Of their old camp in the hundred tents of smoke, 

Pitched thick about the ships and over them 

With every boom; the camp wherein of old 

They flew to arms at midnigh£ or at dawn, 

Upon the sudden call, or on the eve 

Of battle which rose crimson with the sun, 

They flashed incessantly without a sound, 



LAYING THE HERO TO REST. 11 

And with dull glare; as lightning's flash at noon, 
On summer days before the storm lets fall 
Its avalanches, thunderbolts and hail. 



IV 



Fearful of prancing steed or backing wheel, 

The father holds his wild boy by the hand; 

Or, lest the crowd may crush him in its swerve 

As on a pivot toward the booming ships, 

Or toward the wave-like rolling of the drums 

Along old Broadway. How the concourse grows! 

It does not thunder now with wild acclaim 

As when the Hero having rescued Peace 

From war's red clutch, marched homeward with his men, 

And with enkindled eyes saw everywhere. 

Our armies breaking into citizens, . 

Like rugged, roaring Winter into Spring; 

Or saw his Arabs let their horses graze 



12 m LAYING THE HERO TO REST. 

Among the musket sheaves in field and grove. 

To clasp their wives and children lily-white, 
Beneath the trees or by the broken gate ; 

And in the ricy swamp or cotton field 

Beheld the freedman, too, with eyes astream, 

Yet, bright with the sun-dance of an Easter morn, 

Embrace his wife and kin, without the dread 

Of ever being dragged from out his hut, — 

Out from their sobs and moans and broken hearts, 

By a slave-dealer with a whip and hound. 



V. 



Upon the throng at windows, on the roofs, 
The tiers of seats, and on the rocks and trees — 
There falls a sudden hush, and long the lull, 
As should a lightning linger like the snow; 
For now, low as the rumble of the earth, 
The drum rolls near and nearer, while the strains 



LAYING THE HEEO TO REST. 13 

Of martial anguish eddy in the air 

Like swallows in the shadow of tihe storm. 

Lo! as the evening star before night's host. 

So comes brave Hancock singly in advance 

Of the Old Guard, with their arms reversed, and step 

Not so responsive to the beat of woe, 

As to the quick and thrilling bugle call 

Of duty, to fill up the gap in front, 

Or lift the fallen standard, not allow . 

The foe to snatch and twirl in overhead 

Across the field and raise a thunder shout 

More deadly than the bursting of a bomb 

In scarlet torrents on the sleeping camp, 

Or thro' the crashing forest where Zouaves 

Sit by the camp-fire, telling comrades' deeds, 

Or tales of home — the standard, that, raised, torn 

With shot and shell was all the broader sail 

To catch the breeze of valor from true hearts, 

And, by it, be swept up the steepest wave. 



14 LAYING THE HERO TO REST. 

VI. 

Ye youth who seek out peril for your perch 
Or push thro' densest crowds as morning rays 
Pervade the branches and wet leaves, and form 
Cathedral glory in the darkest woods! 
O, all ye youth who now are held alof* 
Upon the shoulders of all future years, 
The giants with the mist upon their eyes, 
That ye may let them know what ye behold, 
What see ye here to-day? a long sun-shaft 
Of glittering arms, and then a dark nightfall 
Of civic sorrow, clouds surcharged with rain, 
From California's coast, Sierra's peaks, 
The Rocky Mountains, prairies, Northern Lakes, 
The woods of Maine and from the Southern Gulf, 
Passing across our city without break. 
Good, but see ye no more than pageantry, 
A thing to marvel at, such as the stone, 



LAYING THE HERO TO REST. 15 

That cast ablaze from Heaven, lights up the plains 
And features of the pointing savages, 
Upon the hills and rocks for miles about 
Night after night for months? The spectacle 
Ye witness is no blaze to be rain-quenched, 
Or covered by a storm of sand, ere long; 
But bud of Heaven let fall on earth to bloom. 
'Tis brotherhood, such as they know above, 
Beyond earth's mists, for look ye down the line! 
The Blue and Gray commingle. How they maroh 
Shoulder to shoulder, carrying aloft 
The sacred burden of their country's grief; 

VII. 

How think these are the Blue and Gray who met 
Upon the bridge which only one could pass, 
And rushed upon each other with the yell, 
And glaring eyes of demons? They, who clinched 



16 LAYING THE HERO TO REST. 

With sword and shot, and 'mid the dust and smoke 

Jumped on each other's breasts with scowl and curse? 

The Bine and Gray, whose clash upon the bridge 

Swung it beneath them like an ocean wave, 

So that it seemed at times about to break 

Its fastenings, and crash down with both of them 

Upon the rocks and roll from crag to crag 

Like thunder deep and deeper, till, at length, 

The gloating vultures from the ancient world 

That hovered near might swoop and gorge their fill? 

The same old Blue and Gray; and tho' the one 

May drag the ordnance, huge and ponderous 

With painful memories, it does not lag 

In honor to the victor of the bridge, 

Who made a way for Freedom thro' his ranks, 

To reach the vanquished, and, weep with a voice 

That stilled the very heart-beat of the stars: 

"0 Absalom! O Absalom! my son! 

Tears, only tears, Lave I tor thee. With them 



LAYING THE HEEO TO KBST. 17 

I wash thy features of the battle smoke 

That never should have stained them, and, beholding 

The beauty of thy youth, forget all else." 4 £v 

srm. 

All murmur ceases — nay, have we not here, C 

The silence of the azure nearest God- 

The azure where sublime and reverent thought 

Alone can enter? Gleamful with the wings 

Of angels, is the silence most profound, 

Of the vast throng at Kiverside, as, now, 

The purple chariot drawn by milk-white steeds 

Approaches. At the head of every horse 

A freedman walks, with heaviness of heart. 

Now, cease the rumbling drum and martial air, 

Except afar where they grow echo-like, 

Till audible alone in memory; 

For the battalion halts, to let the car 




18 LAYING THE HERO TO REST. 

Pass thro' the ranks drawn up in bowed array, 

And mount the holiest of Freedom's hills; 

For there it was that Washington once stood 

In anguish, noticing how few, how few 

His routed men were, and how great, how great 

His undertaking, and where he took heart, 

Feeling God's inspiration like a breeze. 

Oh! could the Father of our land have flown 

Upon prophetic wings to this great hour, 

And seen the sword, once his, rise high in Heaven 

And glow a comet — viewed with awe and dread, 

By every tyrant in the world, and watched 

With hope and joy, by every writhing slave ! 

Could he have seen and heard, Balboa-like, 

The millions of the Old World hither sweep 

Billow on billow — aye, the dark Atlantic 

Where tempests, when they dash not wild at Heaven, 

Swim near the surface like a diving bird 

And swell the wa/ters with their rising wing, — 



LAYING THE HERO TO REST. 19 

Flash from the East to West, and in our land 
Extend a bright Pacific, mirroring 
The moon without a storm-ring, all the stars, 
White, green and crimson, and, sublimer still, 
The planets' Freedom and the Azure's Peace ! 



IX. 



The ancient bugler with the youthful face, 

Climbs reverently on the purple car, 

And lifts his bugle, not with grasp as firm 

However, as at Appomatox, when 

He seized it from fierce war and sounded Peace 

Across the hills and valleys of our land. 

He falters, and a tear rests on his cheek. 

At length he sounds the taps, the last, long call 

Unto the wanderer from the camp, and ah ! 

Not only do the tents rise into view 

Stillv and white, as drift on drift of snow . 



20 LAYING THE HEKO TO EEST. 

But they emit a chill, that, thro' the throng 
Send many a tremor. Buckner, Fitz Hugh Lee, 
And Johnson draw deep sighs and bow their heads; 
Impulsive Sherman sinks his heel in the ground 
And forward bends, as though upon his steed, 
Resolved to seek his comrade wheresoe'er, 
And not return without him ! Sheridan, 
Ashy of feature, trembles, as he never 
Trembled in battle, tho' the earth might quake, 
And open black and red with smoke and flame 
Beneath his rearing charger; while old soldiers, 
Who, to catch breath, would speak, or utter a cry, 
But move their livid lips; else, gasp with throats, 
As husky as a distant battle's roar. 



X. 



Boom, ye warships! boom, each minute boom! 
Ye voice the gratitude we fain would shout 



LAYING THE HERO TO REST. 21 

Boom ! for ye rouse not from the distant deep, 

Tlie monster fratricidal war, to rear 

Its hideous head amid the Heavens, and make 

The rising, roving and insatiate sun, 

Its glaring eye to search for brother's blood, 

In every town and village, house and hut, 

On mountain and in vale, from coast to coast; 

Nay, with the coils of chaos wind about 

Our country; snatch her to the dark mid-air 

Of lightning and of thunder, and there slash 

With her in blindest fury, all the while 

Crushing her vigor into streams of gore, 

That, like the deluge, leave not one green herb. 

fioom ! Boom ! Ye warships ! For did Grant not clutch 

The monster, and securing, firm foot-room 

Upon its crest, draw our republic up 

Erom its grim coils, as it sank earthward ! Boom ! 

Ye warships, oh ! a thousand times, Boom, boom ! 

He smote the monster, cast it into the sea ; 



22 LAYING THE HERO TO REST. 

And when its carcass of revenge and hate 

Rose on the waters — oh, a ghastliness, 

As high as Heaven, that, fastened to our shore, 

Would shut the sun out and breed pestilence 

From age to age, — it moved before his prayer — 

A breeze from Heaven; and then the day and night 

Became a tempest and a tidal wave 

Against the horror, so that, now, it drifts 

Among the icebergs that chill not the child, 

Held in the father's arms upon tJhe shore. 



XT. 



Hark! solemnly the chaplain chants the rite. 
Hark! for where prayer is, there is Ood, and men 
Here feel His presence touching them with faith 
In aims sublimer than the quest of gold, 
Pleasure, or empire. Here they feel, in sootn, 
That noble deed, and bold inspiring thought 
That flames the way to help our fellow-men, 



LAYING THE HERO TO REST. 23 

Alone make life; that all is fleeting show, 
That is not formative witih God on high 
In shaping earth for human happiness. 
In lightning flashes from their cloud of grief , 
They see the hero scud on war's red rack 
Across the marsh and stream, the hill and wood, 
And by maintaining right supreme, become 
An angel, whom they fall before, awe-struck. 
Awe-struck, indeed; for clearly they discern 
That anguish is the air the hero breathes 
Through every pore, in his ascent on high 
And bursting thro' the clouds that darken earth. 
What ! think you that our captain was not racked 
With agony, when he sat statuesque 
Upon his charger on the clouded peak, 
Above the thousand mountains breaking forth 
With lightning and with thunder, and beheld 
The valleys, thro' the blaze-rifts of the smoke, 
Flooded with moaning men, all sires, or sons. 



24 LAYING THE HERO TO REST. 

Who fixed their stare on visions of their homes, 
As they dashed down in cataracts from life? 
Ah ! as above the crimson inland sea, 
The carnage rose and rose, dense as the fog, 
Beneath which wildest billows huddle close, 
And helpless gasp, like sheep beneath the snow,- 
How his each unseen nerve and chord of heart 
Quivered and quivered ! if he was not swayed, 
But stood firm, like an asp upon the hill, 
Amid the awful tremor of its leaves, — 
It was because his vision pierced the fog 
Of gruesome carnage, and, beyond it, saw 
Democracy waist deep in the whirling tide 
That emptied into the shadow of the world, 
Bereft of every ray, save those that warmed 
His forehead from the halo of God's smile. 



LAYING THE HERO TO REST. 25 

XII. 

"What! was Democracy to be engulfed, 

And disappear forever, or, at least, 

For ages; as an island in mid-sea 

Agleam with cascades and with fruitful groves, 

Except where from the sky the mountain swoops 

As with the rage of hunger, and darts steep 

Upon the grazing, unsuspecting wave — 

Sinks with its peak, its cascades and its groves, 

The laden ships at anchor in its bay, 

And with the last hope of the watching crew. 

Adrift with famine, who begin again, 

To cast the dice for one another's blood; 

And leaves no trace, except the flocks of birds, 

That rise in columns like volcanic smoke, 

And scatter for the land that few can reach? 

Was thus to perish bold Democracy, 

The giant who had dashed a kingdom down, 

Eor meddling with his soul ; iJhen, clutching fast 



26 LAYING THE HERO TO REST. 

The glaring, wild Atlantic 'mid" her whelps, 

Freed not her fury from his grasp, until 

He reached the region where he walked with God r 

Unhampered by the whim or craft of Kings? 

Democracy, that shook the sleeping wilds 

And woke them into cities with his will, 

Then seized invading despotism and hurled 

Its bleeding carcass like a thunder-bolt, 

Back to the old world thro' the clouds of war; 

Declaring with a voice that shook from Heaven, 

All the ill stars foredooming men at birth: 

"In this New World shall thrive no Old World wrong! 

Democracy, to perish in the act 

Of towering on a mound of myriad men 

Into the sky, and flinging from our suore, 

With his fierce, lifted hands, and all his might, 

The storm-mouthed monster of the Despot's get, 

That from its lairs, the caverns on the coast, 

Roamed rashly toward our mountains and broad plains. 



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LAYING THE HERO TO REST. 27 

To crush beneath its soul-destroying wrath 

Our brethren dark of face, in multitudes 

Beyond all reckoning, except of Justice 

That counts the unshed tear, and asks of Cain: 

"Where is thy brother?" though his skulking soul 

Be but the murmur in the smallest shell, 

Imbedded in the marl beneath the deep? 

"No" ; God said "No" ! the hero heard that voice, 

And like a lightning did his spirit flash 

Thro' every sinew of Democracy, 

The giant, who, transfigured, drew his arms 

Above him like a bow, and, with a spring, 

Hurled forth the monster, raising, soon, a jet 

From the abysmal billows into Heaven 

In such a volume, it will never ceas 

To fall in sunny showers upon our land, 

And form a rainbow all around the globe. 



28 LAYING THE HEEO TO REST. 

XIII. 

Rejoice, my countrymen! Lo! as the morn 
Lifts from the sea the trumpet of the sun, 
And blows a blast of light across the land, 
Setting the grases in the mead and mount, 
And blossoms in the orchard and the grove, 
A-tingling bright with dew; so glory lifts 
His trumpet from our country's depths of grief, 
And, with the hero's deed and thought for sound 
Sends forth a blast across the mountain range 
Of rising ages, shaking every cloud 
Into a fall of snow upon the peaks 
To be a resting-place for angels' feet, 
And the pure source of many a stream of joy, 
To flash in cascades down the terraced slope, 
Or, like the robin in and out the wood; 
Then overflow the desert and the marsh, 
And not in all the land leave one dry well 
"Where snakes mav make a rlen and clare at thirst. 



LAYING THE IIKRO TO REST. 29 

When, with a mossy bucket in his hand, 
He glances down; for there he shall obtain 
A draught of starlight on the sultriest day. 

XIV. 

Behold! the Angel, Reverence, who sees 

In men who act sublime their greatness only — 

Sees them as factors in the age's march, 

And, in the chief, sees all his mighty host, — 

Arises into form august, from out 

The grateful hearts of many mournful millions. 

And bows before this soldier in repose. 

Awakening his spirit with her love, 

She steps with him upon the purple bloom 

Of brotherhood, which he had sown, and which 

At Riverside, now quickens with such growth, 

It spreads across our land — nay, bursts aloft 

Into a planet from the earth, before 

The raptured vision of the Angel hosts 



30 LAYIXG THE HERO TO REST. 

And of all men. Look! by its fragrance borne, 
It rises thro' the azure toward the throne 
With steps innumerable, each a sky 
Of dazzling luminaries, raised for him 
Who helps his fellow-men — who is, in sooth, 
An angel by maintaining right supreme 
Lo! as he mounts, he draws our country up 
Into the space beyond the sun, where shine 
The Duties and the Rights of Man, twin stars- — 
More fulgent than the suns of nether space, 
Were they all merged in one ; and there forever, 
With trails of spirits radiant with joy, 
And reaching further than the drifts of stars 
Which night is ever snowing into space, 
Shall float America, lit by the beams 
Of those transcendant planets nearing God. 



THE END. 



-^ .. 

COMriENTS OF THE PRES5. 

In his blank verse picture of the funeral of 
General Grant, he has seized upon the pageantry 
and the significance of the occasion, in a striking 
degree. — Springfield Republican. 

In his poem upon the burial of General Grant 
the impression of the funeral cortege and of the 
crowd is finely rendered, and with an unusually 
comprehensive grouping of masses and feeling of 
movement and sound.— Boston Literary World. 



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